


Draw Me

by Musogato



Category: The Daevabad Trilogy - S. A. Chakraborty
Genre: Empire of Gold speculation, F/M, kingdom of copper spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24172603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musogato/pseuds/Musogato
Summary: A late night in Cairo, Ali tries to show Nahri what her true appearance looks like by drawing her.
Relationships: Nahri e-Nahid/Alizayd al Qahtani
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Draw Me

They sat in the candlelight, enjoying the last of the kabsa Yaqub's wife had made hours earlier. 

"So I truly look different to you?" Nahri asked, uncertainty in her voice. 

Ali chewed his food carefully while appraising her, as if taking the moment to phrase his answer. "You're still you," he said finally, his gaze soft. "Just…. Different."

Nahri huffed and reached for her cup of tea. "That's not helpful."

Ali's mouth twitched into a slight smile. "No, I suppose not." 

He glanced around the room, long emptied of its other inhabitants. In a corner his eyes landed on loose sheets of paper and a charcoal pencil. 

"I have an idea," he said softly, rising to his feet. Nahri watched as he quietly returned with the paper and pencil. 

"What, are you going to draw me?" Nahri exclaimed incredulously as Ali sat back down. 

His gaze met hers. "Yes." A sudden blush stole into his cheeks and his gaze fell to the floor. "If-- if that is all right with you?"

Nahri's eyes darted around the empty room. "I… Fine, if you want to." She drank from her teacup, watching as Ali grabbed a book to support the paper and settled into place. He looked up at her, pencil in hand, as though he were ready to begin. She sat the teacup back onto the table, flinching at the sharp clatter. 

"Do I-- just, sit here?" her eyes flickered from his face to the paper and back, frowning as a smile grew across his face. 

"Yeah." He pursed his lips in a poor attempt to hide that smile. "Don't be nervous. Since you've read my letters, you know I'm not that good at this."

His letters from Bir Nabat, which she reluctantly had admitted to reading, had been filled with observations and sketches of the land and life around him. Though roughly drawn, there was a certain charm to them that had made burning them a more bitter affair. 

"Well," she said, clearing her throat, "if I dislike it, I shall burn it like the rest."

Ali nodded diplomatically. "Fair enough." 

With that his hand began moving across the paper, the rough scratch of the charcoal and the quiet hiss of the candles the only sounds. His gaze steadily flicked from the paper to her, a nervous smile breaking out whenever their eyes caught. She soon found it easier to keep her gaze locked on the table than to watch the careful way his eyes traveled her face, her heart skipping in a way she refused to acknowledge. The minutes wore on, and Nahri pinched the hem of her sleeve, nervous of whatever picture was forming on the page. 

"If this is an elaborate stick figure, Ali, I'll burn you _with_ the paper."

"It's not that," he said with a laugh, not looking up. After a moment more of drawing, he paused. "Could you…?" 

She looked up to see Ali looking back at her, his eyes studiously tracing a pattern over hers. His cheeks reddened as his gaze dropped back to the paper. "Sorry, thank you," he mumbled. 

Nahri watched him as he drew on the page, his face focused with the attention she'd seen him give to his studies and to so many other things. He then sat up, moving as though he were ready to hand the paper over. She started to reach her hand out when he bent back over it, rushing to fix a line. This back and forth went on for a few more times before Nahri's patience snapped. 

"Oh my God, Ali, just hand it over!" 

His mouth twisted into a worried frown, his eyes appraising the drawing one final time. "Fine," he muttered, and cleared his expression with a sigh. He looked up at her apologetically and handed her the paper. "I tried."

Nahri took the page and swallowed, suddenly too nervous to look at it. Maybe she should just burn it now and _pretend_ she was outraged. But then she saw Ali biting his lip, glancing between her face and the paper. She sighed and looked down at the drawing. 

What looked back at her was a beautiful face, with mostly pureblooded features and sharp black eyes she recognized as her own. She inhaled sharply, taken aback that this was how she supposedly looked. Her rounded ears, her dull human skin, they were so a part of how she saw herself, she didn't know what to make of this beautiful alternative. 

"Is this how I look to you?" she asked, unable to keep the swirl of emotions from her eyes. 

Ali's gaze raced across her face, unable to determine her emotion. "Uh. Yes? Sort of. I didn't do a good job, please don't be insulted--"

"It's beautiful, Ali," Nahri cut in, frowning. "The drawing is beautiful." 

Ali took a breath, settling back into the cushion. "Oh. Okay."

Nahri looked down at it, trying to understand this almost-stranger looking back at her. "So this is me?" Her voice came out more bitter than she intended. "Beautiful, uncursed me."

"You were always beautiful." Ali countered, before realizing what he was saying. "I, I mean! Uh," He grimaced, trying to think of a way to rescue himself. 

But Nahri wasn't listening, her attention still wholly on the paper. She carefully folded it in half then slipped it into her book that she had purchased earlier in the day. Ali watched as she suddenly stood up, her gaze distantly focused on the floor. 

"Thank you, Ali. I'll see you in the morning."

"Um. Of course. Good night."

She silently left the room, leaving Ali alone. He stared at the empty dinner plate, unsure of what just happened but fairly certain he was to blame. When he could figure it out no further, he slowly rose to his feet and brought the plate into the kitchen.

They never spoke of it again. However several months later, after everything had settled and they were back in Daevabad, he spotted the drawing framed in her room along with a few burnt-edge sketches of stone ruins and plants. 


End file.
